Splimming with Mothercraft: Can Craft While High

Yesterday I destroyed a My Little Pony gingerbread house I was trying to construct with my daughter. After many years of successes, we experienced our first monstrous fail. And though I did tantrum for a minute, I knew how to get over my bruised mama-ego: I queued up some Mothercraft videos (along with a bit of cannabis) so I could laugh at someone else’s semi-catastrophes and eventually my own.

Mothercraft is the brainchild of mom, creative, and all-around funny person, Amy Curran Zimmerman. Her videos involve DIY craft projects, achieved or not, undertaken while stoned. And her mission, aside from entertaining and providing creative ideas to help us bond with our kids, is to eliminate the stigma around moms who get high. Consuming cannabis is as normal as parenting or crafting, right? That’s why Zimmerman decided to combine these activities to create an incredibly amusing video series, which you should definitely watch. And now’s the perfect time to start, since Amy will be sharing her magic in her recently-released and upcoming holiday episodes!

Questions and responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.

Jenn Lauder: Where did the Mothercraft concept come from? How in the world did you think to combine the ideas of crafting and getting high and putting it all together to make these hilarious videos?

Amy Curran Zimmerman: I’ve always had a weird obsession with Martha Stewart and Amy Sedaris: I would like to somehow be a melding of the two. The Snoop and Martha show that’s going on right now is too funny; I absolutely love that. Mothercraft is right along those lines. I really like what both those ladies do – it’s so creative. I’ve also always liked doing crafts, and I will admit I fail a lot. Not just on the show but in life in general. I’m really good at messing things up.

JL: But aren’t we all? I think that part of what’s appealing about your show – we’ve all had our crafting fails…

ACZ: Exactly. I have this table of measurement: either it’s going to fail or be a success, and it’s usually a fail for the show. But at the same time, I usually figure it out – what happened, what went wrong. And that’s fun.

It’s not like I’m smoking a joint and blowing it in my kids’ ear. He’s not my cat in my dorm room.

We decided to come up with the show when a friend of mine started working in content management for PROHBTD. He was looking for people who have done comedy stuff, who have a background in that. So, I called my friend Will because he and I have a history of doing stuff like this together. And I also knew that he would know how to do everything – he knew the technical aspects, he had the cameras and everything.

We put this together in hopes that we could get picked up. I don’t know if you’ve watched PROHBTD at all, but it’s much posher than we are. The other shows we talk about are like The Mighty Boosh and Food Party that used to be on IFC. Just obscure kind of shows that have puppetry and things like that. And we’re like – right that’s probably the alley we’re going to go down. If we had higher production value, we’d have puppets in there.

Image courtesy of Mothercraft

JL: Is the vision mostly yours, or is it more collaborative between you and Will?

ACZ: It is collaborative. He is definitely the mastermind behind the green screen, the gimmicks for that. I come up with all of the crafts and the content for the most part and we just have fun, we just get high and chat about it.

JL: He gets high with you?

ACZ: He does. Not too much. It’s mainly because I’m like – I can’t sit here while you watch me smoke. He keeps his wits about him. The main thing is I wanted Mothercraft to come about because I do think it’s funny, I hadn’t seen anything like it. I see all these shows about moms getting drunk, and that’s great, that’s fine. I drink, I’m not gonna lie.

But why is that so much better? I’m trying to stop the stigma of cannabis being such an awful thing. Truthfully, if I’m having a terrible day, or if I’m upset or not in a good place, it can really help. Bring you back to center, refocus, figure out what’s actually important, and get back to actually parenting a little bit better. It’s not like I’m smoking a joint and blowing it in my kids’ ear. He’s not my cat in my dorm room.

JL: Does your son inspire some of your crafts?

ACZ: Oh, for sure, yeah: most of the stuff I do I plan on doing with him at some point. And I don’t try to hide smoking from him. It is legal. If we get scared about it and force it to stay taboo, it’s going to stay that way for a long time. And what’s the point of that? I let him watch Mothercraft videos if he wants to. He thinks they’re pretty funny. Then he gets really excited at the end – he’s like, “Mama can we please make a geode right now?” Yesterday he had a bunch of his little friends over and we all made slime together. It’s a good time. They’re not all mine and they go home with someone else at the end of the day, and that’s all that matters.

JL: You mentioned your theater and comedic background. Can you talk a little about that and how that informs what you’re doing now?

ACZ: I started doing theater when I was young because I got really shy when I moved as a kid from Washington to Idaho. My mom put me in theater classes, and it made it a lot easier to be able to talk. Not really though – truthfully theater people are so socially awkward, so in that regard it did not help. But I can get in front of a camera and do a show, or I can get up on a stage and do a speech. I know how to emote. I think mainly I laugh at my own jokes a lot and other people are laughing at that.

Image courtesy of Amy Curran Zimmerman

JL: Well I think Mothercraft is pretty funny, and my husband and I laugh a lot. I haven’t shown the videos to my daughter, but now I’m thinking I should go home and let her watch a few.

ACZ: We try to make them really non-offensive.

JL: And, you know, if there is the occasional swear….

ACZ: My kid doesn’t seem to be picking up on it, for what that’s worth. We don’t make a big deal out of it or try to cover it up or anything. Because that’s when he latches onto it.

JL: And the same thing with cannabis, right? They’re finding that, no, talking to your kids about weed does not make them more inclined to try it. It actually makes them less inclined. And you’re pretty open with your son?

When I go into a dispensary I’m usually the only woman, with bunch of bros or men in their 60s. So I’ll just say: “You know I love that Angel Vagina.”

ACZ: I mean, he’s four. It’s not something they’re discussing at school or anything like that. He will come out to the porch and maybe my husband and I will be sitting outside smoking and he’ll come up to the door and be like, “Oh stinky stuff,” and walk back in. It’s something that I want him to get used to enough that he’s not that kid that’s at school who’s like, “You know what I saw my parents doing?” To have enough knowledge about what’s going on to not be fooled by propaganda, by people that are just trying to scare you.

JL: Do you think we’re still there? That kids are still getting those messages, even in places where it’s legal?

ACZ: A little bit. It’s hard to say. He’s only four. But there’s a lot of people that are still just not okay with it.

JL: What’s in the works for Mothercraft – is it top secret or can you tell us what you’re thinking about?

ACZ: I’m looking forward to the holiday episodes we have coming up. This time of year is my jam. I am such a nerd for holidays and decorating and everything.

Image courtesy of Amy Curran Zimmerman

JL: What kind of cannabis do you like the best? And/or how do you like to use it?

ACZ: I started smoking and continue to smoke now because my body has always been really achy. I get headaches and migraines all the time. The first time I smoked, it was amazing because I was like – holy crap, I don’t feel anything! I had this pressure in my head that had all of a sudden gone away. It was fascinating to me that there was something that could do that. At that point decided I was going to be smoking for a long time. I love it.

It’s funny being able to go into a store now and just choose. That’s wacky for me, to be able to say do you have any 70/30 sativa-heavy hybrids? I was experimenting a lot when it first became legal.

The two strains I’ve found recently have kinda dirty names. When I go into a dispensary I’m usually the only woman, with bunch of bros or men in their 60s. So I’ll just say: “You know I love that Angel Vagina.” And they’ll be like, “Oh yeah, the AV, we just got some of that in.” And I’m like: “AV? What do – oh – you mean like Angel Vagina! But abbreviated!”

I just find that opportunity to be really fun. And the name works great. I swear to god, top to bottom, it tastes like roses. It tastes floral. I want a nice taste, a nice smell; I want it to be pretty. Doesn’t everyone?

JL: A lot of moms will say it benefits their parenting or that they’re able to be a better parent. Do you agree?

ACZ: I think so. It helps me physically number one with all the joint pain. I think it helps people in more ways than they know. And I do feel like it helps me with my parenting. I’m not lost without it, but I know I’m a better parent if my body feels more comfortable. And there’s some days – you know I like Sponge Bob. But I like Sponge Bob way better when I’m high. I hate Caillou. I still hate Caillou when I’m high, but I’m not going to shoot the television.

Jenn Lauder is a media maker, content creator, community builder, and marketing strategist in the cannabis space. Cofounder of Splimm, the world’s first pot and parenting newsletter, she has a decade of experience as a progressive, anti-bias educator in independent and public schools and spent five years at nonprofits offering services and advocacy for children and families. Jenn is half of the founding team of Weekend Review Kit, a cannabis review and lifestyle site; has written for numerous print and online media outlets; led a license-winning application for Maryland's medical cannabis program; and directs marketing and advocacy efforts for an herbal products company. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wesleyan University and attended graduate school at Harvard University and Goddard College. Of Jenn’s many jobs, her favorite is being a mama to her nine-year-old daughter.